US Freight Rail Crisis Could Sink Nancy Pelosi Right Before Midterms By Causing Supply Chain Chaos
The midterms are fast approaching and no one knows what will happen. The Republican Party has huge historical momentum, the party out of power usually wins the midterm, and political momentum after a series of Joe Biden’s debacles.
The numbers predicted a huge, massive red wave would sweep over the country. And the numbers still point to that happening although the polls have tightened considerably. Remember those polls in 2020 showing the Dems were going to sweep the Senate and dominate in the House?
They were wrong. But all agree the only chance Nancy Pelosi has to keep her job is to pull an inside straight in the remaining months. She needs no blunders from Biden or AOC and she has to pray prices, especially for gas and groceries, drop.
Not likely, but not impossible unless Joe Biden’s incompetence rears its head and creates a mess. And according to a new report in Wired that is set to happen right before the midterms.
The US freight rail system is having logistical and labor issues that threaten to bring the economy to its knees a month before the midterms thus sinking any hope Pelosi has of keeping her job.
According to Wired:
“Worse, the US freight rail system is now poised on the brink of total paralysis because of a contract dispute between 115,000 rail workers and their employers.
“Negotiations have dragged on since the last contract expired in 2019, during which time rail workers have not had a raise.
“Under the Railway Labor Act, federal government mediators try to prevent railroad work stoppages, in this case to no avail.
“On August 16, a three-member presidential emergency board appointed by President Biden issued recommendations for the basis of a new contract.
“If the sides don’t reach agreement by September 15, rail workers can strike—a scenario that Rick Paterson, a rail analyst at the investment firm Loop Capital Markets who testified during the STB hearings, calls “economic WMD.”
“The fallout of a prolonged strike would likely eclipse those from pandemic delays to ocean shipping because a foundational component of many supply chains would see its labor supply evaporate overnight, says Paterson.
“Ports would jam; trucking rates would soar; livestock would run out of feed.
“For that reason, Congress would likely intervene to delay or quickly end a strike, as it did during the last railroad strike in 1991. But lawmakers may not have much time: The deadline is just three days after the House of Representatives returns from recess,” Wired reported.
A US Freight Rail Crisis Threatens More Supply Chain Chaos https://t.co/GG7JdXUv8b
— Bob O’Malley (@bomalley) August 30, 2022